Judah and Israel

"When Israel came out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue, Judah became God's sanctuary, Israel His dominion." Psalm 114:1-2

The second half of this passage is what really caught my eye. If we break down some of the name and word meanings, we gain interesting insight.

Judah means "praise." Sanctuary means "sacred place" and connotes safety. When we praise God, He find a safe and sacred place there. In the King James Version in Psalm 22:3 it says that the Lord "inhabitest the praises of Israel." When we are able to praise Him, God is able to find His home. The place where He can be Himself. But for us to do this we must see Him as good, as available, and as a provider. And when we respond with praising Him for this, He enters OUR presence. Conversely, consequently, we enter His presence.

Israel means "wrestles with God" or "He will rule as God." Dominion means "place of rule." When we wrestle with God, we find out He rules, He dominates. Jacob experienced this personally, He wrestled God. Literally. But the story makes it sound like the wrestled all night, and that it was Jacob that was resolute about not quitting until he was blessed by God. C.S. Lewis mentions that we often settle for playing with mudpies when a vacation at sea is offered to us by God. But too many of us won't actually wrestle with God. We don't wait. We encounter Him and leave. The main reason for this? We don't see opposition as God. Yes, God is for us, but even that facet of His character explains opposition, not defies it or contradicts it.

A good coach knows this. He or she will know his players and will know when to encourage, and when to push or even discipline. The best athletes will even discipline themselves. Will do the sprints in the offseason. Will run a lap before the coach even commands it. Will seek correction, or if you will, opposition.

Will you practice praise? And by doing so setting a place at the table and making a bed for God in the home of your soul.

Will you encounter God through opposition? Finding out that in the end, like Jacob, you may limp but you will know that God rules over our lives and will transform us.

The Forgiveness of Man

Just had this thought given to me...

How come we have come to know the events of Genesis 3 (the chapter with the talking serpent, Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, you know, all that) as "The fall of man" or "The temptation in the garden"?

Why isn't it more referred to "The Forgiveness of Man"?

At the end of the chapter Adam graciously calls the woman "Eve" since she will be "the mother of all the living." Where did Adam get that idea from? Didn't Eve just give him the fruit that would cause all to die, not live? And yet Adam must have seen love in God's judgments upon them. Psalm 145:17 proclaims "The LORD is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all that He has made." This includes Adam and Eve, and includes the more harsh things said from God in that chapter... it's all still righteous and loving. I believe Adam saw this and couldn't help but respond in a similar way towards Eve, naming her Eve as a result. Think about it! Adam could have easily named her "Big Eternal Screw Up" or "Fall" or... you get the idea. And there would have been no righteousness or love in that at all.

Nor any forgiveness.

Forgiveness isn't just about our past mistakes, but it is also an action bent on the potential of one's future. The original meaning to forgive was to "completely give" or "give completely." When we think of forgiveness as just grace towards our past mistakes, it leaves us with no direction. Adam forgave the woman, and gave her direction in the area of her truest identity: to give birth to all of the living.

One of the truest acts of forgiveness and restoring one's identity is wrapped up in Adam's naming of Eve, which stems from Adam's perception of who God really is and was in that moment. This is a true fulfillment of "Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Colossians 3:14

If i ever write a translation of the Bible, the subheading for chapter 3 will be "The Forgiveness of Man."

I've been tricked.

When Jesus was asked "Who is my neighbor?" it was meant to be a trap. He turned the trap and the question on its head masterfully by pointing out that the question was the wrong question. We are all to be the good "neighbor," not try and justify who we should or shouldn't love. We should be the good neighbor that shows compassion to all. I can hear the guy that asked Jesus the question think, "I tried to trick Him, and I've been tricked."

I think He does the same thing with the question of the greatest commandment... He turns it on its head entirely. Here's the passage from Mark 12:

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”

Did you see it? Well, if you didn't see it that's ok. Many of us have been taught that Christianity is about all these laws to follow, morals to live up to, and deeds to perform... or else. And we have been taught this so much that whenever the concept of love comes up, it manages to come through the same filter: another law to follow, a moral to live up to, a deed to perform.

The "turning on its head" above is this: you can not command someone to love. Go ahead. Try it. Go up to that girl you've had a crush on for the last year and say "Love me." That's not a flip we can switch. However, the wonderful part about this is that the only way we can fulfill that is by falling in love.

Right?

And if you are sitting there thinking, "yeah, but i must love my neighbor" or "yeah, but i have to do my devos" well then you aren't really doing either of that out of love. You're most likely trying to climb some sort of religious ladder.

So, then what?

Preach to yourself the Gospel over and over and over and over again until you realized you are loved. 100%. God has NO regrets about loving you. NO regrets about dying for you. NO hesitation about living in you through His Spirit.

You are created good.
Sin has tainted that experience.
Christ paid the penalty to remove the tainting.
You can live gratefully loved in response, on this side and the next side of eternity as a result.

The greatest "command" is this... a natural response to just how

LOVED

YOU

ARE.

Your Enemy is Bread

In Numbers 13 we learn that Moses sent spies into the Promised Land, Canaan. The spies came back and told of its glories by saying it was a land that "flowed with milk and honey." I imagine a modern day translation would be something akin to "flowed with bacon and Bolthouse farms beverages." (If you have sampled Bolthouse, you KNOW what i am talking about!) The spies also cowered at the size of its inhabitants saying that the Israelites were "like grasshoppers" compared to them. But Caleb tries to rally the troops saying that they can indeed win in battle. His reasoning is in Numbers 14:9:

"Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them."

How can two people who saw the same thing have such opposing reactions and reports? Simple: perspective. One saw the size of the people and their abilities and reported back that they should fear and flee, even back to Egypt where they were slaves. The other, Caleb, saw the fact that "the Lord is with us" and that their opponents' "protection is removed from them," assuming that it was the Lord who removed it.

When you perceive from your own point of view, then it is easy to succumb to fear, laziness, defeat and the like towards whatever your "promised land" is. Maybe it's that project you always wanted to complete, running a marathon, buying a house, becoming an avid reader, being more philanthropic... whatever! In some way we all have opposition that faces us when it comes to doing good. But what is your view, your perception of that opposition?

Will you let that perception be fear? Or apathy? Giving in to the enemy and its apparently overwhelming size? Or will you see that Jesus has stripped the enemy of all his power and has left him defenseless, and through perseverance, trust, faith, and hard work you can enter the promised land of your most ambitious dreams and goals?

When you begin to see any opposition in your life as "bread," that which doesn't oppose you but actually NOURISHES you towards your goal, then you already have victory over that enemy. Now you must simply walk past that enemy of fear and into victory.

Mother's Day tribute.

Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.

²¹ “What is it you want?” he asked.

She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”

²² “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”

“We can,” they answered.

²³ Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”

One thing i never quite noticed before is that James' and John's mother doesn't get a lot of attention in this story, but maybe she should. What if when we worshiped Jesus (in greek, "kneeling down" is the same word for "worshiped") and when we get to that place where we know we have His attention, we begged and aspired (the greek for "asked" in that verse) for God's absolute highest blessings. By the end of this conversation Jesus has the disciples, the sons in position for martyrdom, an honor of the highest degree in the Kingdom. Now, whether the Father has them sit where they want is still in question by the end. And though the end is still unclear, the means have become very clear. And the tone of this doesn't seem like a rebuke either, in fact, it seems more like a teachable moment. Later on, the rest of the disciples all get a lesson in how "to be the greatest" as well.

As we aspire to "make disciples of all" i believe there's a nugget hidden in this. We don't want to simply make disciples (sons and daughters) by just getting people through their tragedies and dramas... don't we want to beg and aspire for Jesus to bless them with things we don't even understand? The highest blessings of heaven? And how unselfish is this of their mother too! She has Jesus full attention, He asks her (think about this for a minute) what SHE wants! And then her response has nothing to do with herself or her well being! So what if she has no idea what she's asking for... it's AWESOME!

I don't believe this to be some sort of formula we can follow, but at the same time i feel like there's treasure here that we can see. Worship, grab the attention of Jesus. Then let Him address you. Then address Him with your highest desires for your closest friends. And then let Jesus direct them.

tell me about it (proverbs given to me recently)

*my largest sin is not believing that God truly loves me.

*carrying a weapon and arming yourself are different from each other. Learn how to not only know Scripture, but how to live Scripture.

*taking humility off is always costly. always.

*beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, unless I Am (i.e. "God is") the Beholder.

*Righteousness abhors injustice but loves its wife, Peacemaker

*"Carry your cross" does not mean to be sad, it means to take on others' sadness and bear it with joy.

*The heavens await you.

*Tell heaven your heart and shake it with your tears. Repel heaven with your fears.

*If you're ashamed it's because your choices don't match your heart.

*Laziness is greed.

*(From God's point of view) What I begin can only be halted by My people, not by satan.

Feeding your hunger

Were you ever really, really busy and feeling dead inside at the same time?

In Genesis 1 God spends five and a half days making EVERYTHING. Light. Land. Water. Sky. Stars. Moon. Sun. Animals. Fish. Birds. Plants. EVERYTHING. Everything except man and woman.

And when God makes man and woman, He makes them in His image, in His likeness, in His ways. And when they wake up, so to speak, everything they could ever need, i.e. the EVERYTHING God had just made, was already provided for them. What a sign of grace! What did man and woman possibly do to deserve this paradise? They did nothing. They were simply brought to life. They were given life. And when they woke, they first saw the face of God (there's an alarm clock for ya), and then they were shown the rest of all that was created.

In verse 28 of chapter 1, it says, "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.'” I will cover this in detail in another post down the road. But for now it is important to see that even though they had it all (face-to-face relationship with God Himself, and all of creation at their helm) the initial interaction between God and man is this: "God blessed them." How many of us have the first instincts of "Do! Do! Do! Do this, then hope there's blessings for doing so."? Isn't it true. We hope that He will bless us. The truth of the proper paradigm of being a child of God is this: He blesses us. And THEN sets us on mission.

And again, i will go into more detail on the mission on a later post, but for now consider that it has something to do with interacting with the whole of creation around us and teaching others to do so with their talents.

But my main point comes from the next verse, verse 29:

"Then God said, 'I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.' And it was so."

After showing the ultimate sign of grace of providing everything imaginable before man and woman were even ABLE to earn a single blessing, God assigns them a mission and then points them towards fulfilling their hunger.

What are YOU hungry for the most? At the end of your life, what will you hope to say was accomplished through you? What injustices in the world make you angry? What are you doing to correct that injustice?

Inside each of us is a hunger, a desire, a thirst. God placed it there, and He also leads us to a variety of options it seems of how to properly nourish that hunger. However, in Genesis 3, that hunger was sullied on something that didn't fill man and woman, it fed a lust instead of nourishing a hunger.

We've all been there. We've eaten candy instead of a meal and paid the price. We've toiled in greed instead of laboring in generosity or self-sacrifice and found ourselves still wanting more. We've acted quickly out of anger to only see the situation get worse instead of better.

Your hunger has many options, but they are all along one path: righteousness. When we step outside the bounds of God's righteousness, or His rights, or His right-ness, we step into the boundaries of sipping on the salt-water of greed, lust, quick-fixes, and dead-end decisions.

Notice that the food God pointed man and woman to all had the same characteristic: seed. The ability to reproduce.

If we fill our hunger on things that end with the meal, we will be left hungry again. But if we fill our hunger on things that are able to lend itself to more, that can be reproduced in others, that bring us to life even if it makes us tired, then we will not only be satisfied, we will be more hungry! Proverbs 13:12 says, "a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Notice how just one longing can not only reproduce a fruit, it reproduces a fruit factory! This is true, eternal, abundant life at work, when our desires are not only fufilled, but reproduce more desire AND more fruit.

There are probably those of you reading that have questions you wish i could answer. "Well what is my hunger?" "What is my desire i should persue?" But if i simply answered it for you, you would be full. Let your questions lead you to more hunger.

May you feed your hunger with hunger.

p.s. For you baseball fans and/or coincidence watchers i found this interesting ten minutes after i published this. Andy Pettitte retired on this day. If you take his first initial with his last name, you get A. Pettitte or "appetite." And few things would better describe this player now that i think about it.

Quote Board 2010

Before i go back to my normal posts i will entreat you with another year-in-review type post. This one will be the many quotes that made it on to the Schiavoni Quote Board. Enjoy! Most of them you should get, some you simply will not. Have fun!

"Don't judge a cover by its book. ... Dang it." -phil

"You've been injuring yourself a lot lately." -lindsay, right after poking me in the eye twice and nearly dislocating my thumb.

"Have you ever shot each other with these?" -lindsay, about my pellet gun

"I love Mexican food." -phil

"Me too." -lindsay

"I hope Mexican food accepted Christ." -phil

"You Aunt Dick and Uncle Judy... uhh... your Uncle Judy and Aunt Dick." -lindsay

"Jesus, forget me." -lindsay attempting to say, "Jesus, forgive me."

"She can't even count on her fingers correctly and she's in fifth grade, Phil, FIFTH GRADE! ... uhh, fourth grade... but STILL!" -lindsay

"What is one thing in life you've really looked forward to?" -pastor brad from the pulpit

*at the same time lindsay and i responded to each other with...*

"The wedding!" -lindsay

"The fantasy baseball draft!" -phil

"I'm feelin' kinda beefy." -lindsay, in regards to her dinner preference

"Oh! Ow!" -phil

"Did that hurt?" -lindsay

"I don't know!" -phil

"You remember what you're asking Stauffer, right?" -phil

"Right!" -lindsay

"Which was...?" -phil

"ehhhhh..." -lindsay

"You and your shoes... your socks." -lindsay to phil who was not wearing shoes.

*on Flight of the Conchords*

"Are they British?" -lindsay

*phil laughs*

"What? Are they Australian?" -lindsay

*phil laughs harder*

"WHAT?!"

"I disgrace your chips." -phil

"As they say, 'whoever smelled it, d...' well, uh... as they say!" -lindsay

"You better get used to this." -phil, about lindsay doing the dishes

"And we have football!... i mean dinner!" -phil. there was no football on or anything close to football going on.

"What is it?!" -phil, to lindsay first thing in the morning after lindsay woke me

"Goosefly!" -lindsay

phil pets lindsay's nose and says, "pumpkin pie time!" because he wants to eat pie

"I'm wrestling you, aaaaaand falling asleep at the same time. Take that." -phil to lindsay

*in mid conversation*

"well, anyway. i think i just fell asleep. Good night!" -phil

"That's a man!" -a random boy at Panera Bread at least a dozen times, very loudly, at me.

"It's really watery...sorry, it's really wootery." -phil

*lindsay glares at phil*

"I'm tickling you with my eyes." -lindsay

"want a banana chip?" -phil

"No. I can say 'no' ... but i'll take one." -t.

"Can you..." -lindsay, as she holds out a corner of a bed sheet that phil smells... "hold this?!"

"Is that the weird kid who dressed up as Jesus every day?" -lindsay

"No. No. He would never go crazy." -phil

"Yeah, i put two and two together and got HEEEEEEYYYYYY-AYYYY!" - phil

The post-its around my laptop

I was about to take down 8 post-it notes that i have adhered to the shelf that borders my laptop, and i thought that the quotes on there would be neat to share. Here they are. Be blessed.

"Love, it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free. Be more like the man you were meant to be. There is a design, an alignment, a cry of my heart to see the beauty of love as it was made to be." Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons

"Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved." Sarayu, p. 128, The Shack by Young.

"Your gift gives you your ability. Your call gives you your identity. Your anointing gives you your purpose." -Kris Valloton

"Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and do confirm the work of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands." -Psalm 90:17

"I'll LISTEN; look to have HOPE; and choose JOY."

"When you love, you do." -Bob Goff, Jubilee 2010

"I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name." -Isaiah 45:2-3.

"Many noble pursuits await the encouragement of a friend." p. 52, The Five Love Languages for Singles, Chapman